Anemone
by Nekocin
Summary: [AU, 3x4] They meet at a mutual friend's wedding and continued meeting each other unknowingly as days go by.


**Title:** Anemone or the Solitude within the Depts of the sea

**Author:** Nekocin

**Fandom:** Gundam Wing

**Theme(s):** #24 the puppetmaster; strings; control freak

**Pairing/Characters:** eventual Trowa/Quatre, side-pairing Wufei+Meiran

**Rating:** PG

**Type:** Alternative Universe, series

**Warnings:** possible OoC

**Additional notes:** shounen ai bordering to yaoi, for _30romances_ livejournal community

**Disclaimer:** series doesn't belong to me

**Chapter 1: The wedding**

With careful precision, Trowa dug a hole in the soft soil with his gloved fingers, pushing the earth to form as a wall around the hole. His eyes examined the little pit he had made to check for small twigs and other unnecessary stray objects that might prevent the plants from growing in the field. Then with a small shuffle, he loosened the surrounding black soil for easier access to fresh air. Once he was satisfied, he turned to his colleague, Catherine, who had been kneeling silently next to him from the very beginning, gesturing for something. She passed him a small plant which she had taken out of the cup that had kept the young one tucked in for the last 3 months. Trowa put it into the soft soil, almost with paternal care, and closed the hole, breaking the make-shift walls to embrace the delicate green stem.

"That's the last one of them," Catherine said with a look of satisfaction on her face and eased herself up from her kneeling position. She then stretched out her arms in the air. Trowa winced in silence when he followed her example.

They have been working on the field under the glaring sun since 7 in the morning, putting young experiments in the ground and hoping that over a month or two the healthy plants would sprout out beautiful little flowers.

Catherine stopped stretching. "Ah! Isn't it today your friend's wedding?"

Surprised, he took out his pocket watch ignoring his soiled gloves and read the time. 16:08. He had promised to be there before 18:00. He instantly mapped out a time table in his head. If he hurried home driving 50 KM per hour and above, he would be able to make it to his apartment within 45 minutes instead of an hour and 20 minutes. Taking a bath completely sterilizing himself from dirt would take about 30 minutes. Picking out appropriate clothes would take 15 including the ironing. And if he hurried--he would have just an hour to make it to the feast.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Cathy," Without waiting for Catherine to return the gesture he sprinted out of the field to the parking lot. He heard a distinct shout of 'Don't forget to bring me some cake, Trowa!' and figured, with a smile tugging at his lips, that Cathy had stopped going on a food diet.

----

The moment he had stepped into the Chinese restaurant in which his friend's wedding feast was being held, all the guests at the front door stared at him. He was a head taller than anyone in the room so it was normal to receive everyone's attention. So he stared right back. They turned their heads away immediately, embarrassed, and started whispering to each other in Chinese.

"Good evening," he greeted at the desk next to the door. From his friend, he heard it was customary to sign the guestbook and put a certain fee into the box next to the book. The guestbook was for the attendance and the fee--well--he didn't know. The girls tending the desk were playfully pushing each other, giggling among themselves and shyly trying to catch his eyes with their subtle gestures. He only gave them a nod before following the queue of guests who were waiting for their turn to shake hands with the wedded couple and the joined families.

His friend, Wufei, was stoically accepting everyone's hands and occasionally nodding to whatever the guests were saying to him. By his side, the bride--a girl he had only seen in a picture--was smiling rather tiredly to everyone she shook hands with. Unlike what Trowa had been expecting the couple weren't wearing anything that resembled a traditional Chinese wedding dress. Wufei was in a black-white tuxedo and his wife, Meiran, was in a strapless white gown. No large flat hats. No red ribbons. No complicated knots.

"I'm glad you could make it. You're usually off somewhere in the forest," Wufei had said when it was Trowa's turn to shake hands.

"Congratulations,"

The bride said nothing when Trowa shook hers mumbling the same words again.

"Congratulations,"

He then shook hands with Wufei's parents and in-laws, before being led to a table near the liquor counter by the Master of Ceremonies. Table 37. It had a family of 5 people, an out-of-place guy wearing dark colors and 4 empty chairs. With a mumbled "good evening," he took a random seat next to the guy in dark robes. The family greeted him back half-heartedly. His neighbour on his right turned to catch his attention.

"Yo!" The guy greeted with a smile. A careless hand brushed the long fringes back to reveal his rather large but twinkling dark blue eyes that regarded Trowa like an old friend. "It's been a while since I last saw that hair,"

Trowa stared at him, trying to put a name to the face--rather heart-shaped (for a guy) with a slight angular chin--but came up with none. Though the long--very long--braid dangling across the guy's shoulder did trigger a distant memory. The stranger must have been one of the students that stood out when he walked past them in the halls during his student years. That same significant long messy braid that reached the guy's mid-back.

"I'm sorry. I can't remember your name,"

"I wasn't expecting you to. Name's Duo," His neighbour reached out his right hand.

"Trowa. It's nice meeting you again," Trowa reciprocated, accepting the handshake.

Duo laughed for no reason. "I can never forget that hair. It's so... unique. So, are you and those two love birds family-friends of sorts?"

"Not really--only with the groom. We used to be last-minute study buddies,"

"Damn! I thought you could help me identify some interesting people around here. It seemed like no one here knows each other at all. They're just connected to those two somehow. Either distant family, friends of friends and that kind of stuff,"

"...I suppose...," Trowa glanced over to the other guests--little ones were running around playing tag, waiters were moving about offering refreshment drinks to everyone, other guests were sitting grouped together talking loudly in gibberish--and heard the distinct notes of a Chinese pop music playing in the background.

"Hey, Trowa, were you present at the very beginning of the wedding?" Duo remarked with an unsuppressed grin on his face.

Trowa shook his head. "No,"

Duo burst out laughing again. "You should have witnessed the opening of the wedding. The bridesmaids were awesome!"

"How so?"

"They made the groom and his brothers pay at every door they had to pass in the bride's house and then ordered them to do a list of activities. I heard it's a running gag of sort letting the bridesmaids boss the guys around before the groom can wisk away the bride,"

"I see,"

"It looked difficult to be doing sit-ups in tuxedos you know, much less climb a tree wearing one at all,"

"Isn't that too extreme?"

"Doesn't really matter. If Chang wants to marry the girl he might as well start sweating his way to get her. Isn't that romantic?" Duo said, reaching over the table to grab a can of coke. "They have been pretty nasty to Chang's best man over there,"

He pointed to only group of guys in black-white tuxedos standing at the liquor counter, chatting and laughing. Trowa glanced along not trying to remember whether he had known them once or not.

"That short blond over there. Quatre's his name by the way. He had to dual one of the girls and then admit defeat if he as much touched her with the rapier. What a way to step on a guy's pride! The girls made him drink a strange greenish substance which name I know not, and let him dance the hoop with some kind of techno song for the beat he was to follow," Duo continued, pulling the can open and taking a swig. "Ugh! Bad coke! Bad coke!"

One of the children sitting at their table giggled at Duo's failed attempts of cleansing his mouth. "Ew"

"Don't drink the coke, Trowa. It's disgusting," Duo shuddered to emphasize his point.

He nodded and choose bottled water from the table even though it's not his favorite drink. His neighbour then launched himself into a tale about nasty drinks the kids sitting next to him should avoid. Some were made up, Trowa was sure. At least the children were enjoying themselves, laughing and giggling with glee when something interesting in Duo's story fascinated them.

Trowa turned his attention to the entrance door, looking over every guest that came in following the queue.

----

Fire crackers were lit to indicate it was time to begin the feast. The wandering guests sat down, helping their children to cover their ears and waiting for the racket to stop. Once it stopped, the guests clapped and turned their attention to the Master of Ceremonies.

Trowa realized he was sitting in the middle of two chatterboxes. Both neighbours on either of his sides were trying to have a conversation over his head while the MC was doing the opening speech in his rather sharp and nasal voice. Duo had found a new friend in the groom's best man.

"Wouldn't it be more convenient if we changed seats?" Trowa had muttered not exactly addressing one of them specifically. Without waiting for an answer he stood up to offer his chair. The guy on his left looked at him for a moment, before taking the seat and continuing his conversation with Duo.

Trowa spent the rest of the evening listening to the family at table 37 criticize the food (personally he thought the food was okay, but the father kept mentioning how salty the vegetables were) and to Duo and his new-found friend analyzing a bunch of technical solutions to car troubles (he didn't know much about car engines, so he couldn't share anything worth mentioning anecdotes). At least his neighbour on his left had yet to start a conversation with him or anyone round the table. He didn't mind.

A Chinese wedding seemed to be about food and getting to know people by names.

Before he left the restaurant, he made sure he got an extra piece of wedding cake. For Cathy.

----

**TheNekoTalks:**

- about Trowa's profession... blame my Philosophy class. I have to write a paper about the field day I had at CELOS. It was an organization about protecting the plants and that sort of stuff.

- is awesome! They have a lot of information on plants.

- about the bridesmaids... it's true. I've asked my friends about it and they say it's really a running gag when the groom has to come for the bride, bridesmaids get to boss him and the other guys around.

- the title of this story is just temporary. I just can't think of any titles.

**Thank you for reading!**

**.:Nekocin:.**

**Edit: **Sorry, I found a lot of typos in my work. Please forgive me.


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